Rising tide
by Argosaxelcaos
Summary: Set after KOF XI, it follows the adventures of Shen Woo. May have cameos by characters from other companies. Please read and review. 5th chapter up! The lunch of doom!
1. Wild Dog pt 1

Well here we have the first chapter of this (hopefully awesome XD) story. Let me know of any mistakes. (I will blame anything on English not being my first language)

Disclaimer: I don´t own any of SNK wonderful characters. Anything related to KOF is copyrighted by SNK but since I´m not going to use them for profit...

"This is someone speaking"

_This is someone´s thoughts_

**A move´s name**(They aren´t screaming it)

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Saturday night. A normal spring night, nice and warm, with no wind and a big, shiny moon showering everyone with her pale light. Nights like these are when people from all parts of Shanghai forget about their job and their problems and they just look for fun. Or something to clench their desires. Lust, for example. Along the less...family friendly parts of the sleepless city, were scattered some establishments that would cater these persons appetite. One of such places, 'The Lucky Hand' gentlemen club, had quite a reputation of good service, iron rules that would be enforced no matter what, and the guarantee that everyone here would swear that whoever entered this place was in another place at the time. All those rules made what you would call a nice and civilized place. But one of it´s consumers was wishing those rules did not exist.

"Damn, baby. The 'no touching' rule is killing me..." Told said customer in a husky voice to a scantily dressed lithe Asian woman, currently dancing slowly atop the man´s lap, following the slow chords of the music coming from somewhere within the dark booth.

"We can´t get anything in life, can we?" Countered the dancer, perfectly moving her lustful body as if possessed by some demon and the only thing that mattered to her was the constantly-changing tempo of the music. "Of course, there are times, you can get lucky..." The blonde man´s excitement only grew as she slowly undid her bra, as if she wanted him to utterly enjoy every moment of it. His smile only grew wider as he drew a wad of cash from his jeans (Which at this moment were causing him a great discomfort) and in a smooth movement, barely touching her with the tip of the bills, slid them in a smooth movement against her side, and slowly went all the way up to her right breast, playing for a second with her nipple, before drawing the cash back to him, and holding it with his teeth.

"I make my own luck, baby." The stripper got the clue and shot into those sleepless eyes of his a sinful glance. With a deliberate slow pace, she caressed his well toned abs with her lips, without ever forming into a kiss, before sliding upwards, touching his skin with her bosom as she made her way up to his chest making the man extremely grateful for having discarded his shirt earlier. Her lips continued their little adventure upwards caressing sinfully his neck and jawline until she reached his mouth, and picked with her lips her reward while the music reached it´s climax.

As the man exited the club with his shirt under his arm, he studied his reflection on a shiny plaque. A tall and muscular young man, with golden short hair in an spiky and unkempt fashion and a smile, not unlike the one a starving tiger would sport upon finding a prey, fixated on his face returned him the look. Light blue eyes, with very noticeable bags under them, a product of chronic insomnia, that had a cunning and ferocious glint stared at him from beyond the reflective surface. He gave an approving nod and pushed the front doors of the strip club. The first thing that greeted him on the outside was the noise from the constant flow of people that traversed the street. He loved it, the pulse of the city, it´s hustling rhythm that never stopped. It was really comforting to him, all the sounds and lights, all those people quickly making their way to wherever they were going to. It always made interesting being awake. (Not that he had much of a choice)

"Hey, Shen! Don´t tell me you spent all your money on Lei Fang again..." Said a laughing voice behind him. The bouncer, a big Chinese man with his head shaved and dressed in a black tuxedo gave him a friendly pat on the back.

"I swear, that girl is gonna be my ruin. How you´ve been Wong?" Asked the blonde brawler while turning around to face his friend.

"Nothing special, which for me it´s actually a pretty good thing. I´m not going to get myself in trouble now. Peace is good. Specially when I have a pregnant wife."

"I still don´t know how did you manage to knock her up without getting that thick skull of yours split like a watermelon..." Joked the man known throughout Shanghai as Shen Woo.

"The power of love is all-mighty!!" Said Wong with a girly voice while posing like a sentai super-hero. The two men then laughed their hearts out at this while the rest of the street gave them a weird look.

"Well dude, gotta go. Tell Mei-ling I said 'Hi'" The brawler gave the bouncer a playful punch on the shoulder and walked away, slipping on his trademark pink shirt over his bare torso and reaching to his pocket for a pack of cigarettes. He pulled it out and stared for a moment to the familiar design of the box. The silhouette of a gypsy playing the tambourine in the mist with a blue background with the word 'Gitanes' below it had become a regular (and quite expensive) sight now, he put a cigarette on his mouth and lit it with his zippo. He took a drag and enjoyed the brown tobacco flavor that inundated his senses. Yet another guilty little pleasure he indulged in, aside from hot tea, he loved smoking every now and then. He couldn´t afford the lack of stamina that came with heavy smoking but a pack a week wasn´t too much, was it?

Shen was pondering on the effects that smoking had on the human body when he noticed a blurred shape on one of the rooftops of the lively street. It could be anything, but he knew every inch of this city like it was the palm of his hand, and whatever that was, it was not there a couple hours ago. _A package for a triad? Some new air-conditioning system?_ Shen wasn´t sure. As he passed along said building he pulled his butterfly knife and played a little with it on his hand. The shadow now behind him, he used the reflection on the blade to check on the suspicious shadow when he saw it shift a little. The now decidedly human shadow changed his position and quickly crawled across the rooftop to get a better look at the street. Shen studied the reflection a little more and he made more shapes that moved skilfully from one roof to another. _Too skilfully to be simple thieves. More like assassins._ Thought the Asian brawler. But that affirmation only gave him more questions, one of such would be the identity of their target. Shen kept on doing fancy tricks with his shiv as he walked down the crook-infested street, looking for possible targets for such skilled and quite possibly, high-profile hitmen. Shen did not see anyone that had enemies that thought they merited such...'special attention'. Except for himself. The brawler had no shortage of enemies that would do anything to get rid of him. Preferably in a exceptionally brutal and painful way. He stopped flipping his click clack and pocketed it.

"Better than sex, better than smack..." Muttered Shen Woo as he made a short dash forward and looked at the shadowy figures. They had stopped being stealthy and started running as well. "Gotcha!" Shen had just done this to make sure they were after him, and now that he was sure he kept on running down the street and made a quick turn into a narrow alley knocking some people over in the process.

He was not sure they wouldn´t shoot in a packed street and while he wasn´t a 'hero' or even a 'good person' Shen would not use other people as shields. He jumped towards the wall at an angle, and used it to jump again over a fence that would have stopped his run short. He kept on running and used a garbage dump as a spring board and jumped into a fire escape and quickly climbed it to get to the roof of the building. When me made it to the top he saw the figures running and cocking silenced sub-machine guns at him. He simply smiled and kept on running till the edge of the building and without losing any speed he jumped over the edge. He absolutely and utterly loved it, the exact moment gravity had no hold on him and then, the free fall. The roof of a building about 5 meter below was getting closer as he soared the sky. Then the adrenalin kicked in like a dam bursting open. All seemed to stop for a moment. The whole world had just gone silent for this instant of beauty. Shen closed his eyes for a moment, letting all his other senses guide him. He felt the warm breeze of springtime Shanghai against his skin. He heard the noise, the voice of his city, pulsing with life and speaking to him. And he heard the whispers coming from the gun´s muzzles, bullets soaring the air around him, missing him by mere inches...and he smiled.

Then he opened his eyes. He hit the floor with a roll to lessen the force of the impact landing on his feet and kept on dashing without breaking stride. Fifty meters to the edge of the building. A metal pipe and an air-conditioning system next to it at the ledge would help him jump to the next rooftop, and from there he would cross the street using a zip-line. On his way there was a metal air vent that crossed the rooftop, and another one ten meters behind it that was about a meter above the ground. He quickly speed-vaulted over the first one and slid below the second without losing a second. As he ran the last twenty meters he looked back over his shoulder to get a good glance at the foolish goons that dared challenge him on his own playground. Two men and two women seemed to conform the team. And he knew this particular group of people. The Ikari Warriors.

"...better than coke, better than meth..." Said Shen in an excited voice as he used the air-conditioning to jump upwards, making it over the ledge of the higher structure. He stole another glance at the mercenary team, clad in dark military garb and toting H&K MP5K sub-machine guns with silencers. They were expertly making his way to him and shooting a couple rounds at him. Shen jumped at the void and grabbed the zip-line that crossed the street full of pedestrians unaware of the scene that was taking place just some twenty meters above their heads. The Chinese fighter was very happy right now. They weren´t any of that useless crap he had been fighting lately, these guys were first-class and he was determined to have a little fun tonight. As soon as his feet touched the ground he kept on running across the maze/hurdle course that were Shanghai´s rooftops. He ran across the buildings´ roofs, never letting his pursuers have a clear shot at him. Another glance confirmed what he had already thought. He had already sorted them out.

Leona, then Whip, and then Ralf and Clark. The blue-haired Amazon was by far the fastest and more agile of the lot, followed by the dominatrix kid and then the noticeably more bulky and slow pair of military giants. Leona was catching up even with the advantage his knowledge of the terrain provided him. She couldn´t get a clear shot at him while running at this speed and did not want to waste any more ammo. They had about six seconds of difference with the rest of the team. Enough for him. He jumped towards a balcony that had an electric billboard fixed on the wall, the blue-haired girl following him.

"...better than opium, better than anything!" Screamed Shen merrily as he turned around to confront his pursuer. Leona trained her gun on him but he quickly grabbed the bolt of her gun and yanked it back and forth extremely quickly, ejecting the first bullet and jamming the MP5K when rechambering a bullet while she was trying to shoot. Four seconds left. Using her moment of confusion he tried to do a swift low kick, but her fighting instinct took over and she jumped over the kick with an axe kick of her own. The _**Strike Arch**_. Shen barely blocked the oncoming attack. Three seconds left.

_I can hold him until the rest of the squad gets here._ Thought Leona, but while blocking her strike the Chinese thug´s smile didn´t even flinch. He broke his guard and did a shoulder tackle that while didn´t do any damage, knocked Leona on her back. While she was quickly getting on her feet he already had found his center. Like he had done over a million times he focused his Ki on his fist and unleashed his _**Tatsu! Geki Ken**_**. **But not upon Leona, but on the wall. The incredible force of the punch cracked the wall and made the billboard come crashing down between him and the female soldier. One second left. He picked the round he ejected from Leona´s gun and quickly smashed through the door that led into the building while the rest of the team closed on him. "GET HIM!" Screamed Leona at her radio. Ralf looked at her concerned, but nodded and kept on their mad chase. Leona quickly outweighed her options. The sparking billboard was blocking her way, but any attempts to climb it would fry her and it was impossible to just jump over it as there were no points to jump from. She unjammed her gun and looked to the street below, full of people wide-eyed and confused as to why that billboard had fallen and asking worriedly if it might fall into the street. Leona would had no other option than to descend three floors to street level and make her way into the alleys and back to the rooftops from there...

Shen ran up the stairs at an astounding speed, with the rest of the Ikari squad hot on his tail. He busted open with a shoulder tackle the door that led to the roof of the six-floor apartment complex. He knew exactly where to go next. Left, straight though a couple of buildings and then turn right. The military, unable to get a clear had no other option that to keep on running after him. While he ran, Shen took a closer look at the bullet he stole from Leona. A tranquillizer round. They wanted to have a word with him. Too bad the only thing he talked with were his fists. With his target getting closer he pulled out his click clack and flipped it into position.

The team with the amnesiac girl known as Whip taking it´s lead was getting closer to him and they aim their guns at his back. They had him now. The route he chose ended with a twelve-meter drop to the roof of a small love hotel behind a bigger apartment-complex that was getting it´s façade repaired. They saw it when they were getting into the position the informer had told them was more likely to meet the rowdy brawler. If he tried to jump to the scaffolding they would get a clear shot at him.

"YOU´RE COMING WITH US!" Shouted the young dominatrix. He didn´t stop, and she made a signal, and the Ikaris readied their guns. _Now, jump to that scaffolding..._ She thought while smiling, their contractor had given them the assignment to capture the man known as Shen Woo and they weren´t going to fail. But he didn´t head where she was expecting him to. He went straight for the edge of the building and jumped into the void, turninig around to face them with a cocky smile and giving them 'the two-fingered salute'. Whip´s heart skipped a beat as she ran to the edge. They didn´t count on him committing suicide rather than letting himself get captured. Then she got horribly pissed off when he saw him land on a soft pad covered with a canvas that absorbed the force of the impact. Shen ripped the canvas with his knife to make sure no one else could mimic the stunt.

"Clever bastard..."Muttered Clark as the brawler got under cover from the hail of projectiles the mercenaries unleashed upon him. Then Whip upholstered her cherished whip and used it to sling down Indiana Jones style. Ralf and him would have to climb down the scaffolding...then it clicked. "NO! DON´T FOLLOW HIM! He isn´t fleeing!" But it was too late, as she was already on her way down.

"What do you mean Clark?" Asked the grizzled mercenary.

"He is trying to separate us! Every person has a different running speed, and if you run long enough, your pursuers will distance from each other, allowing you to take ´em one by one!"

"Fuck...we underestimated him... At this distance we´ll hit Seirah if we shoot. Let´s go!" - Said Ralf as he jumped to the scaffolding and started climbing down.

As soon as the female mercenary landed, she was met by ninety-eight kilos of fury that slugged her hard on the stomach and made her double over, he raised both his hands in a fist and brought it down on Seirah´s head. Hard. Then he did an double-handed upwards smash that threw her on the floor, she tried to shoot at him, but he pinned her gun arm to the floor with his foot.

"There´s nothing better than the rush of fighting!" Exclaimed merrily Shen Woo.

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OOOOH! Cliffhangers are evil, kids! Let me know if you liked it, what could be improved or if it´s a piece of crap. Constructive reviews are welcome. Or at least let me know if someone actually is reading this.


	2. Wild Dog pt 2

Leona, Ralf, Clark, Whip and Shen are property of SNK Playmore. Not mine

Here we are back after a huge hiatus on the story. I´m very sorry but the lack of reviews really put me off then.

PS: Looking for a beta reader!

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Ralf swore quite loudly while he ran inside the scaffolding the construction workers used to repair the façade of the building. There was a canvas on the outside so they couldn´t see how Seirah was faring against the Chinese fighter. As the two mercenaries made their way down they heard the sounds of the hellish battle that was taking place a mere six meters below them. The sound of feet moving quickly, a whip cracking and grunts of pain, and then a furious battle cry and the sound of something heavy falling to the floor. Who was still standing? Had his comrade won or had Shen been the one to land the last blow? Ralf and Clark rushed to the exit of that dammed scaffolding only to see Whip´s motionless body on the floor, her weapons nowhere to be seen. Ralf and Clark reached to her back to back to avoid an ambush. Ralf carefully checked her pulse. Alive. He sighed with relief. Apparently that punk could be many things but he was not a murderer. Then a wild war cry snapped him out of his train of thought.

Shen smiled as he saw his enemies approach their fallen comrade. Their concern was very touching, but quite a foolish manoeuvre. He was perched on the edge of a window. He barely managed to climb there in time to avoid being shot at by the Ikari warriors. _One down, three to go. _Thought Shen as he fidgeted with the tranquillizer dart he got from Leona´s gun. He yelled to attract the mercenaries´ attention and jumped atop Ralf, landing with his feet on the Rambo look-alike shoulders, slamming him into the floor with quite a lot of force.

"Missed me?" Said the brawler as he yanked the gun away from his victim and threw it at Clark, making him miss a shot that would have knocked Shen out. The brawler quickly closed in to the mercenary with the shades. Clark tried to gunwhip Shen, but he swiftly dodged the attack and spun around him, stabbing him in the neck with the stolen tranquillizer dart. Shen had to admire the man´s resistance as he tried to grab him to perform his **Argentina**** back breaker.** But it was a slow, sloppy movement and Shen avoided it easily, grinning as he watched the last remnant of Clark´s strength fade away and the subsequent fall to the floor.

The Chinese brawler turned around to confront his other pursuer, but he miscalculated the time he would need to pull himself together and attack him. Ralf charged at him and tackled him to the ground. The **Umanori Vulcan Punch.**

"Get some of this, motherfucker!" Yelled Ralf as he started pounding savagely on Shen´s face. Shen protected himself as good as he could, but the brunt of the punches still hit him dead on. He focused past the increasing blackness that threatened to swallow him and managed to parry one of Ralf´s punches. He quickly put his leg between himself and his attacker and shoved him off, quickly getting up.

"Not bad, pops, but it´ll take a lot more to put me down." Said Shen as he wiped the blood from his lips.

"We´ll see about that" The fighters started circling around, scanning each other for a sign of weakness, an unprotected spot. A feint, a parry, a jab...Ralf could easily see that his opponent wasn´t an amateur by any means. He had a very little chance of taking him down, but it was a chance nonetheless and he was determined to not fail this mission. There was a lot riding on this, and their employer had made a point that the target had to be brought in quickly for interrogation. He closed his fists and charged towards his target. "RAAAAAHHH!!"

---

Leona rushed down the alley as fast as she could, feeling the warm air brush her face, the grip on her gun tightening. She was near, she could feel the ki outbursts nearby, and then nothing. Her heart skipped a beat. Who was left standing? Though her radio there only was coming static. She quickly got to the roof of the building, dreading what she was seeing. All of her comrades, of her family, were unconscious or dead, she couldn´t tell without getting too close. She ran up to Clark. Alive. Relived, she looked up too see Shen standing besides Ralf´s unconscious form. The brawler had a swollen eye and his lips were bleeding among other signs of a heated battle.

"Phew, that´s the fight I was looking for, ya big lump of meat!" Said merrily Shen while he kicked Ralf on the side, more out of spite than any real desire to hurt him further. He pulled out his knife and started cutting his swollen eye open. "Yo, Orochi girl, wanna fig..." Started saying Shen, but Leona trained her gun on him.

"My name is not Orochi girl. And this will end right now." Deadpanned Leona. She threw her handcuffs at Shen´s feet. "Put them on." Shen did an overblown thinking expression, mocking her. She kept herself calm, it was of no use getting angry with this...beast.

"Not gonna happen." He put his knee on Ralf´s neck, threatening to crush his windpipe. "Try shooting me now, beautiful" Again, more mockery. A part of her wanted to act, but she knew the consecuences. Leona lowered her gun, if she shot, he would fall and kill her comrade. She could only wait and give him what he wanted. She field stripped her gun and laid it on the floor gently and did the same with her handgun. "You´re forgetting the knife, beautiful" Pointed Shen with a grin. Leona frowned at him, she hated this kind of people. They did whatever they wanted, whenever and without any worry over the consequences. She held the knife on her hand for a moment, weighing it. She looked at Shen, who downright looked like a hungry tiger. Fighting without purpose is only violence, her father told her once, and she couldn´t agree more on this case. _He is like a beast, feeding only on violence, without a worry on the world but the next fight..._ She couldn´t take the risk, so she hurled the knife behind her and beckoned for him to come.

"Come, and lets get this over with quickly" Said the blue-haired amazon.

"Hope you´ve got a little more fire than your friends, they weren´t half bad but I was expecting a little more out of the fabled Ikari Warriors." The brawler told her as he cracked his knuckles in a menacing way while he got up and came towards her. "Think you´re up for it?" Leona didn´t respond, not verbally at least. She immediately attacked Shen, starting with a vicious flip-kick to the chest that Shen deftly blocked. He could feel the strength behind the attack, which was followed by her **Moon Slasher, **also blocked, although more difficultly. He countered with a straight punch, directly aimed at her face. Leona expertly parried the attack and countered with a upward slash, using her ki to make the wind around her hand cut her opponent. Shen staggered back and Leona took advantage of this. She ran towards him and brought her arm down in an ark, her ki glowing in her hand, making a long cut on the brawler´s chest. The **Ground Saber**. Then she used the momentum of her sprint to perform her **Gliding Buster, **making a somersault, this time doing the slash motion with a kick, sending Shanghai´s battle god flying backwards.

He fell to the floor with a thud. He quickly got on his feet, laughing maniacally.

"That´s the pepper! That´s what I´m looking for!" He charged forward, attacking Leona with his **Geki-ken. **The powerful haymaker punch was blocked, but it´s sheer strength made Leona unable to launch a counter attack. Shen jumped and kicked Leona´s chest. She blocked it and crouched to block whichever ground attack was coming next, but in the split second that his feet touched the ground he hopped and caught Leona undefended with a flying downwards punch. Unable to defend herself, Leona felt her abdomen explode in pain as Shen punched her there with an upset punch, following with a forward kick to the chest and another **Geki-ken. **Leona felt her face go numb, but kept herself on her feet and struck back. Shen blocked quickly a low kick, and their deadly dance continued on.

He was savouring every moment of the moment the two of them were sharing. With neon billboards illuminating them and the sounds of the bustling city as background music he felt like he was dancing with her, an experience which he was thoroughly enjoying. The precision of their movements, the power of their strikes, the uncertainty of the moment, Shen felt there were few ways that you could become more intimate with someone than crossing your fists with them. He knew there was a reason they named it martial ARTS, as the beauty of this dance of blows, of sweat and blood was unparalleled to him. To the untrained eye, the moves were but blurs, way too fast to follow. But he was appreciating all of it. Quick, to the point and without wasting any strength unnecessarily. _This chick´s_ _moves are just like her_. Chuckled inwardly the brawler.

After a few minutes of intense fighting, both he and the military Amazon had dealt and received a fair share of blows. Knowing this could not go on any longer Leona screamed and hopped over him, a sphere of ki appearing in the air just in front of him, shifting the air and accelerating it to the point where it could cut flesh with ease. The **Baltic Launcher. ** _Such fine control over her ki, she´s able to keep it spinning around outside her body even as she keeps fighting...no wonder she is considered one of the world´s best. _Shen admired as he focused his ki on his arms to block the attack, absorbing the power of the attack the best he could, leaving his forearms covered in what looked like painful cat scratches. Turning around to meet Leona, he blocked a series of fast crouching strikes and then he saw it. An opening. He quickly broke his guard and rolled to avoid the upcoming **Moon Slasher, **quickly situating himself behind his last pursuer.

"What?!" Leona quickly turned around to defend herself, but was received by a powerful uppercut to the face that made her stagger. Shen used this opportunity and weaved to gain momentum for a vicious shoulder bash that took all the air from Leona. She fell to one knee but her opponent didn´t give her any quarter as Shen hopped, hitting her again with his flying downwards punch and attacked her with a barrage of jabs and quick body blows. Leona could only roll with the blows to lessen the damage, but she didn´t even have the strength to put up her arms and try to defend herself. Leona could only watch helpless as Shen cocked his arm back with lightning fast celerity and clenched his fist. Then he started collecting all the ki energy he could unto his fist. From Leona´s point of view it looked as if he was holding a small sun in his clenched fist.

"Eat this!" Yelled Shen, dashing forward with a haymaker so powerful that the friction of the air burned his gloved hand, leaving parallel scorch marks on the leather and on the skin below. **Tatsu! Geki-ken**. Leona barely saw the move, but a fast-moving purple blur and a streak of orange ki energy hitting her dead on, launching her a couple meters backwards. She hit the ground with a loud thud. Leona tried to get up again, but a bolt of pain thundered on her ribs. Shen had probably broken one or two of her ribs with that last technique. She coughed up some blood. "Booya! That last punch was right on the money!" He spat on the ground and leaned forwards "Come on! Get up! I can tell you´ve been holding back this entire time! What are you scared of?"

"Y-you...wouldn´t understand..." Salid Leona weakly, leaning on the wall for support, coughing more blood. _No! This wound should bleed so much. Then why I am coughing so much blood?!_

"Of course I fuckin´ won´t! Unless you explain it to me I won´t get a goddamn thing!" He motioned for her to come. "Don´t leave me hanging here! Rambo here went on longer than you...and here I thought you were the star of the team." Shen knew this girl had something more in her. Her moves were flawlessly executed, but in her eyes there was a pang of fear and doubt. _What the hell is she scared of? She´s probably been in more battlefields and life or death situations than any man alive on the planet. Then why does she doubt? Why does she hold back?_

"...I...I..." A sudden pain on her head made her drop on her knees. _NO! IT¨S THE RIOT!!!_ As if on cue with her thoughts, her vision started fading into red. "RUN AWAY!!" She screamed, trying to warn the brawler, to no avail, as her consciousness faded away, the light in her blue eyes replaced by a shining white. Her hair turned red and she howled, the excess ki energy dancing around her, slashing wildly at everything around her, leaving claw marks on the floor and the wall she was leaning aganist. Shen had to cover his eyes to protect them from the dust and debris flying around.

"Phew. Looks like the rumors were true..." Shen then noticed something. His legs were trembling and threatening to buck under the insane battle aura of the recently unleashed power of Leona. This only managed to make his usual cocky grin grow into a full blown slasher smile. "Is this fear what you´re making me feel Orochi girl?! I´ve never been so excited in my life!! Last time, Ash hogged that Yagami guy, but this time you´re all mine...COME AND GET SOME!!" Roared the Chinese brawler as Leona dashed on four legs at an incredible speed towards him.

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Well, here is it! The second chapter of our tale. Please read and review, and let me know your opinion about the fight scenes.


	3. Wild Dog pt 3

Woot! Chapter 3 already! Can´t really belive it, I thought my inspiration would have died on the second one, but here we are

All Characters are copyrighted by SNK

PS: Still looking for a Beta reader.

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Blood. All that Shen could taste now was blood. He was breathing heavily, a bleeding slash crossing his chest. _Hell will freeze over before a chick like this puts me down!! _Thought the Chinese brawler. Leona was in front of him, clutching her head and screaming savagely. _Her fighting style has changed considerably. She´s a lot more aggressive now, and her speed makes me unable to get a good punch in._ Shen´s thoughts were interrupted when the Brazilian Amazon leaped at him with cat-like grace and speed and landed a powerful drop kick on his chest, slamming him against a neon sign; making sparks rain all over the place. Not even taking heed of this, Leona continued her savage attack, pounding and slashing wildly at Shen, who was unable to discern any kind of pattern in her attack, her moves changing directions too rapidly for him to follow.

Leona kicked Shen to the ground with a roundhouse kick to the head he barely blocked. He struggled to get up from the concrete floor, when he heard something metallic fall to the ground. One of her earrings was sparkling on the floor right next to him. Shen cursed and rolled on the ground to avoid the following explosion. Shen barely got his feet, wobbly knees threatening to buck under his own weight. He had to turn the tables on her and turn them now.

"Yī kou qì gàn wán, chāng fù" He spat to the ground. He was losing this badly because he was on the defensive. _No matter how trained the warrior, to defend is to react, and any reaction is slower than the attack. Well then, fuck defense!_ Shen dropped his arms, going stanceless. The Chinese brawler did this to trade all of his defense for a higher degree of unpredictability on his moves. He charged at Leona, who in turn looked somewhat confused, unable to predict where he would attack. Shen hopped, going for a flying kick but instead feinted and did a sweeping kick that floored Leona. Both fighters continued fighting, or more exactly, trading blows and strikes, curses and growls. The fight had been transformed into a contest of endurance and aggressiveness. All defense forgotten, both fighters putting all of their efforts into grinding their opponent into dust.

Continuing with his savage offensive, Shen held both hands above his head and brought them down in a double fisted hammer, hitting Leona hard on the head. **Fukuko-Geki**. Then with his hands down he hit Leona in the jaw with a brutal double-handed uppercut. **Kouryuu-Geki.** Leona flew backwards, but she spun in mid air and landed on her feet just like a cat. Before he could react she ran up to him ramming her fist like a blade in his stomach. He tensed his abdominal muscles to prevent her from impaling him completely. Shen bore his teeth to numb out the pain and tried to punch her in the face. Leona jumped back dodging his attack and screamed like a savage cat. Shen looked at the wound and noticed her other ring attached to his belt and sparkling. "tā mā de!" The brawler could only curse as the small bomb exploded before he could do anything about it. **Rebel Spark.**

He was on the floor, his vision threatening to fade away, hearing screams from the people below, scared for their lives, terrified of what could have caused the explosions when he felt Leona mount him and raise his hand, going in for the kill. He didn´t fear death. More so, his enmity with the city´s more powerful triad marked him for death. He didn´t give a fuck about them. Dancing on the edge of the knife was what he considered to live for real. Pursuing the next thrill was his raison d'être. And if in following the path of the warrior his life was lost he didn´t give a damn. But he absolutely refused to be killed by a chick that wasn´t even conscious of her acts. He dodged just as Leona was about to bury her hand in his neck and punched her in the face. He made good use of her being thrown off balance and mounted her instead.

"Sorry, but I prefer to be on top" He started pummeling at her wherever he could land a good shot. Leona growled and elbowed him on the face, hard. Throwing him on the ground she tried to regain her breath. Her broken ribs were proving quite a nuisance, even in her berserk state. Shen touched his pained jaw. If she had hit him a little bit harder now it would be broken. He was getting up when he noticed something on the floor. Leona´s handcuffs. Shen´s mad grin returned to his face, now he had a plan. It was a long shot but a chance in a million is better than no chance at all. He snapped the handcuffs on his left hand, leaving one open.

He got up at the same time as Leona. She was crouching and breathing hard. She reminded him of his pet pussy. _She moves just like a cat. Or rather like a panther. _He made balance of the situation. Cop car sirens were sounding closer. It was evident that people must have called the police after hearing the explosions. _Well, better end this quickly. There´s a certain Interpol officer I DON´T want to see… _Grimacing at the thought of being arrested and seeing good ol´ Thunder Thighs again he got ready for the impeding onslaught. He inspected his opponent, and smiled contently at the split eyebrow he had just given her.

"Well, may I ask for your company tonight?" Asked with a mocking reverence the brawler.

"KILL!!" Answered with a scream the female soldier.

"Such an eloquent response leaves me speechless…" He braced for her attack and was hit by a flying kick, followed by an elbow strike to the chest that sent him staggering back. Leona took her chance and ran at him. She made her ki spin on her hand and get a bladed shape and used all her momentum to slash at him in a downward motion. **Ground Saber**. She slashed him, but when she tried to finish the circular motion she noticed her hand was stuck. Shen raised his hand, smiling. He had handcuffed the two of them together. "Try jumping now beautiful, come on, I bet it´ll be quite amusing…" Leona tried to yank to free her hand and when that didn´t yield any results she tried punching him on the face. He just laughed and parried her attack, he grabbed her by the belt and headbutted her three times. "How! About! This!" He took advantage of her being dazzled and punched her repeatedly on the abdomen before concentrating his ki on his hand and striking her with a savage backhand punch. **Saikouhou-Geki.** "Not so feisty now, eh?" Shen just continued striking at her, his behemoth-like size and strength giving him all the advantage.

Leona tried to fight back with a snarl and concentrated quickly all of her extra orochi unholy energy into her free hand and spun it around her fingers, sucking in the surrounding air and spinning it to make a bladed edge around her hand out of the air. She attacked Shen with a violent jumping attack, trying to sever him into pieces with a vicious v-shaped cut. **V Slasher**. But in the moment her hand collided with his body she found it couldn´t cut. Her prey´s body was protected by an intense ki barrier. Shen just reached and whispered something on Leona´s ear.

"End of the road baby…" With a barbarous warcry he made the ki barrier explode all around him. An inferno of vital energy, channeled for indiscriminate destruction erupted around him. **Bakushin!** The possessed girl was struck head on, the explosion catching her unguarded and sent her flying. Or so would have happened had she not been handcuffed. Leona felt a loud snap and a lightning of pain coursed her arm, nearly numbing the pain on the rest of her body. Her useless arm chained to the victor of this fight. But in her berserk rage she knew nothing of this. It was useless but she tried to attack once again. Shen couldn´t help but admire her resolve, even if it wasn´t entirely hers. He parried her kick and with one final knee strike to the chest she lost consciousness, her hair returning to her normal blue color.

Shen fell to one knee. He breathed heavily, Leona´s limp form still attached to him. He took a moment to take in the scene of destruction he had left in his wake. Unconscious bodies littered the ground, bullet holes painted the walls along with cracks from bodies colliding hard into them. The love hotel neon sign, hanging haphazardly with it´s lights flickering back and forth into life. A satisfied smile appeared on his lips as the sirens sounded nearer.

"Well, beautiful. It has been quite an enjoyable night but this is where we part ways." Said the brawler to no one as he dug inside his pocket. "Wha...? Where the hell is it?" He sighed. His lockpick was nowhere to be seen. "Must have dropped during the fight" He looked for it but couldn´t find it, and trying to unlock the handcuffs without it would take too much time. Either the police caught him, or he bled himself dry. He had to get somewhere safe and stop the bleeding. He raised his chained hand and looked at Leona. "…tā mā de." He raised Leona´s limp form and slung it on his shoulder. As he quickly got away from the scene, only one thought filled his mind. _I just decked the entire Ikari team by myself._ _I imagine that somewhere in the world 'Breaking the Law' is playing._

* * *

What will the incredibly evil Shen do with poor Leona? Find out next chapter!

Translations:

Yī kou qì gàn wán, chāng fù - Time to end this, bitch

Tā mā de - Fuck.

(Yeah, Shen´s got a really colorful language :p )


	4. A Rude Awakening

4th chapter! I really didn´t think I´d last this long, but well, here we are.

Props to Nameless Flame Wielder for the beta read! Thanks a lot man!

All characters property of SNK playmore.

* * *

Her eyes were clearing now, and she wished they hadn´t. The scene of brutality before her eyes was too much for her to comprehend. The little jungle village was up in flames and bodies were littered everywhere. She recognized the body lying on the floor next to her as Paolo, her best friend. She panicked and ran to him, grabbed and shook him.

"Paolo, Paolo!!" Getting no response from him, the girl started crying inconsolably over her friend's corpse. He was okay not that long ago; they had agreed to go catch some birds to get their beautiful feathers to decorate Leona´s costume for the party. And now...the thought was too much for her innocent mind to stomach. What had happened? Why was everyone dead? She brought her hands to her face and noticed something wet. "Sangue?" Her hands and now her face were covered with blood. Someone had attacked the village? Why? They never hurt anyone, they only helped those in need. The village was a common stop for missionaries on their way to other needy villages. Leona didn't understand a thing. "Não sei o que acontece!!" _Father! Father will know! _The small girl ran to her house with tears in her eyes, fearful of encountering whatever had caused this nightmarish carnage. Her innocent mind playing images of demons laughing and torturing people. She quickly made it to her house and entered. She felt like dying right there; the house looked as if a hurricane had made it's way through. Everything inside was broken into pieces and there was blood almost everywhere. She saw her father's limp form on the ground. Dead. She resisted the urge to fall down to the floor and scream when she heard a weak cough from the adjacent room. She ran and found her mother on the floor, clutching a bleeding wound on her side. There was a lot of blood on the floor and Leona almost slipped as she ran to her. "Mãe!!" She screamed with tears threatening to flow again from her eyes.

"Le-Leona..." Her mother coughed roughly, her face contorted in pain, so unlike her usual serene and graceful expression. "...estas bem?" Asked her mother, brushing a lock of hair away from the little girl's face.

"Sim... Mãe, la villa e...!!" Her mother hushed her.

"Bom menina..." Said her mother, kissing her on her forehead. Then she smiled and the light in her eyes faded. Leona just couldn't hold it anymore and cried desperately, praying that whoever had destroyed and killed everything she held dear would come and finish her off. She didn't know how much time she spent crying on her mother's corpse, but she heard something different from the flames eating away at the village buildings. She came out of the building to find some of the people groaning and getting up amidst the carnage. Her hopes suddenly raised, she ran towards them, but something was amiss. They were shambling around and pointing at her, groaning in unison as they inched closer to her.

"Assassina!" The villagers repeated constantly while pointing to her. She looked down at her hands and the truth dawned on her. There were no demons, no soulless mercenaries. She didn't know how but she had killed the villagers. She had killed her friends and parents. Leona fell on her knees, a sense of dread and desperation overtaking her... she just started to mumble incoherently. This couldn't be happening! As the murdered villagers got closer to her the earth started to shake. She screamed and opened her eyes.

Leona opened her eyes screaming and shot up from the bed, her head colliding with something but she paid no heed to the impact. She breathed heavily, taking in the unknown environment. She was in a dimly lit bedroom, decorated with various Asian paraphernalia. The windows were half open and through the curtains some sunlight peeked into the room. It all seemed fairly normal. A normal tidy bedroom, nothing remarkable. She moved her right arm to her face and noticed she had it in a sling, but it didn't hurt at all. It was immobilized and it was clear that whoever had done it had quite a good grasp of first aid techniques. She noticed that her chest was bandaged as well but, the same as the arm, it didn't hurt. The Brazilian Amazon also took note with a blush that she had nothing on but her underwear. She couldn't help but hope it wasn't a pervert with a camera that had removed her clothing.

Trying to relax and determinate a course of action, she held her breath and listened; Some faint guitar riffs could be heard in the distance, as if someone had been listening to music but didn't want to awake her. The sounds of a bustling city awakening filtered through the windows and she could swear she had heard a cat moving around.

"Onde estou?" Asked herself the confused soldier. Last thing she remembered was the Riot of the Blood taking over her. _What happened? Where is the rest of the squad? _Then she heard someone groaning in the floor next to her bed. She slowly peeked over the edge ready to defend herself. "YOU?!"

"ME!!" Growled the all too familiar man getting quickly on his feet. "WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?! HUH?!" Shen wasn't particularly happy with this recent turn of events, which was a euphemism for saying that he was really pissed off. "I haul your ass all the way to my home, I treat your wounds and I let you sleep on my fucking bed! Although I can't really sleep, but passing the night on that fucking couch is hell...and then you have the mother of all nightmares and when I try to wake you up gently, what do I get for my trouble? A FUCKING HEADBUTT!! What's wrong with you, girl?!" Shouted the brawler angrily, pressing one hand against his forehead. He was only dressed in a pair of slacks and a fine layer of sweat gleamed on his muscled body. He had his chest and stomach bandaged and some bruises decorated his body here and there, along with a left black eye. He looked as if he just came from some war zone.

"Where am I?" Asked Leona trying to get out of bed but Shen held her in place.

"You shouldn´t move. You have a...wait a moment. Whoa, whoa, sweet whoa!" His anger gone, now replaced by an ecstatic curiosity. "Does this hurt?" Said the brawler while poking her ribcage gently. Leona was too dumbstruck by this sudden change in his mood to do anything but answer.

"Er...no?"

"You sure?"

"Yeah? Look, wh..." She was interrupted when he grabbed her immobilized arm and started removing the bandages and the wood that composed the improvised sling. He looked at it intensely, grinning like the Cheshire cat.

"Move it." He said suddenly, with an eagerness on his voice not unlike the one a child in front of a candy store would have. She did so, moving it around and spinning her hand in circles. "Nothing?" Leona didn't understand what he was expecting to happen, but having him looking at her with such attention reminded her of her near naked state of clothing. She covered herself with her arms, looking to the ground that had suddenly become very interesting as her face got redder with each passing moment.

"Where are my clothes?" Leona managed to say, trying not to think too hard about him undressing her, her mind returning to the pervert with the cam.

"Hm? Ah, yes. Had to cut ´em. Not that they survived our small tussle," said the brawler walking to a nearby chair and holding the shredded remains of her uniform for her to see. "They'll make nice cleaning rags." The brawler told her, shrugging his shoulders. He walked up to his wardrobe and took a white t-shirt that read 'Hard Rock Café Hong Kong' and gave it to the bashful girl. Leona quickly put it on, the t-shirt covering all the way down to her butt. Leona was still puzzled and wanted some answers from this man.

"Look, where am I and did you bring me here? Where is the rest of my squad?" Shen just ignored her and exited quickly the room, returning with a pair of tweezers.

"Stay put now." He said while cupping her face. Leona decided it was best to play along for the moment and did as she was told. It was of no use fighting without a plan. Shen started humming in tune with the music as he worked quickly and precisely removing the stitches from her eyebrow. "Holy shit...it closed perfectly. You're completely healed." He started pacing around the room mumbling things in Chinese leaving Leona with her own thoughts.

_Completely healed? Just how long have I been unconscious?!_

She remembered him breaking a couple of her ribs and then Rioting, and for the looks of it, the battle had continued for quite a while. Shen had put her arm in a sling, so he obviously thought it was broken and it was clear he was quite knowledgeable about this kind of thing. As if he had read her mind he looked at her once again.

"You've been asleep for about ten hours." He came closer to her with his eyes full of curiosity. "In that time you have healed three ribs, a broken arm (Broken in three places no less), a broken wrist and a split eyebrow." He sighed before continuing. "Seriously...What. The. Fuck? I mean, I thought you would be out of commission for at least a month but you're good as new." Leona was dumbstruck once again.

"You're lying." Leona couldn't believe what Shen had just said. It just couldn't be true. There was no physical explanation for that.

"Think what you want to. As for the how, I don't have a single idea. Maybe the Riot of the Blood accelerates the body's natural healing abilities." He got up and pranced about. "Well, I'll fix you some grub. All that calcium and whatnot had to come from somewhere. I bet yer starving," he said to the mercenary with a questioning look.

"I'm not hungry." In that exact moment Leona´s stomach let out a very unladylike growl. Shen couldn't help but laugh at her embarrassment.

"Thought that kind of thing only happened in anime." Shen observed jokingly as he walked out of the room. Leona quickly got out of bed and scurried after him. The next room was a fairly spacious living room. The mercenary noticed all the furniture was cheap and old, currently set aside, as he had been working out while waiting for her to wake up. It still had some air of coziness accentuated by the sunlight illuminating it. Shen walked up to a beat up stereo system and turned the volume to the max. Heavy metal riffs and screams filled the tiny apartment, drowning out the sounds from the marketplace outside.

'You'll take my life but I'll take yours too  
You'll fire your musket but I'll run you through  
So when your waiting for the next attack  
You'd better stand there's no turning back

The bugle sounds as the charge begins  
But on this battlefield no one wins  
The smell of acrid smoke and horses breath  
As you plunge into a certain death'

Leona recognized the music, some soldiers at the HQ listened to it. _Iron Lady? No, Iron Maiden? Yes, that was it... _The silent mercenary flinched at the loud music, she had always preferred silence, or ambient music at most. She looked at Shen, currently rummaging through a small fridge.

"Empty..." He looked at her with an saucy smile. "Tell ya what, we'll go to a restaurant, ok?"

'The horse he sweats with fear we break to run  
The mighty roar of the Russian guns  
And as we race towards the human wall  
The screams of pain as my comrades fall

We hurdle bodies that lay on the ground  
And the Russians fire another round  
We get so near yet so far away  
We won't live to fight another day'

"A restaurant?" Asked the mercenary. Now the situation had taken a turn into the surreal. He was their target, and he was inviting her to have lunch with him? It made absolutely no sense to her. That aside, his cheekiness had her always on the defensive. She couldn't tell whether he was joking or not. Moments like this made her wish she had more in the way of social skills.

"Tuí" Replied Shen in his native tongue. "Just let me have a shower and I'll treat you to the finest Chinese cuisine, alright?" Said as he casually took off his slacks, making Leona suddenly avert her eyes in embarrassment as he threw them into a laundry pile. He entered the bathroom and in no time running water could be heard. Alone with her thoughts once again, Leona started thinking rationally. She had to either call for back-up, run away or capture him.

'We get so close near enough to fight  
When a Russian gets me in his sights  
He pulls the trigger and I feel the blow  
A burst of rounds take my horse below

And as I lay there gazing at the sky  
My body's numb and my throat is dry  
And as I lay forgotten and alone  
Without a tear I draw my parting groan'

_He's still injured, but I'm not sure if I can subdue him by myself. I better call for back-up_, Leona reasoned as she unhooked the phone, but it gave no dial tone. Leona sighed; he obviously wasn't going to let her summon her comrades just like that. She thought of another way to do so but couldn't come up with anything feasible. What did Shen want? He couldn't have done all of this out of spite. He probably wanted to interrogate her about their contractor. She wondered if all of this attention he was giving her was aimed at breaking her in a subtle way. Lost in her thoughts she felt something furry brush against her leg. Looking down she saw a small black cat with green eyes prancing around her legs. Out of pure instinct Leona crouched and stroked it gently, eliciting a purr from the cute animal. The cat just jumped into her arms, pleading for more attention from her.

"I see you two have already become acquainted. Leona this is Xianghua, Xianghua this is Leona" Looking up she saw the brawler looking at her, wearing nothing but a pair of boxers and a towel dangling from his shoulders. He strode towards the fridge, styling his wet hair with his hands. The cat dropped from the mercenary's arms and lazily strode towards it's master. Shen opened the fridge and took out a can of beer. He opened it and downed it eagerly in one shot, leaving Leona wondering if he actually tasted any of it. "Ahhhh, nectar of the gods..." Even in his wounded state, Leona could tell the man just oozed with power and strength.

_Taking him head-on would have an unclear result and I can not risk it_, the mercenary determined, carefully studying his form for any sign of weakness. She saw nothing of use for her. It was as if the man was carved out of solid bronze. He was muscled and well toned, not so much as to be lumbering, but to remain agile. She examined the large tribal tattoo that covered his back, the black ink intertwining making a sober but strange design. Faint remains of scars from battles past covered his body, signaling him as a veteran of many fights. _You probably don't get nicknamed 'War God' for nothing. _And he wasn't just a ripped thug, the tactics he pulled against the Ikari warriors had caught them completely unprepared. He also looked a lot bigger in person, being as tall as Ralf and a good chunk taller than herself. She could guess that many females had found him attractive in a rough, wild kind of way. She was still somewhat anxious about the interrogation theory. She had been trained to have the mental resilience to resist torture, but this was the first time she had been captured by the enemy. And with the way they had underestimated him, she didn't know what to expect from him. The mercenary jumped slightly when Shen suddenly turned around to face her and pointed the can at her.

"Want some?" Said Shen, offering some beer to the girl.

"I won't divulge any information about our mission, so stop it already." Said Leona in a deadpan tone. He just didn't make any sense to her, and she was convinced his behavior was an act to make her drop her guard. He took another sip from the can, an amused expression on his face as the stereo started playing another song.

'I am a man who walks alone  
And when I'm walking a dark road  
At night or strolling through the park

When the light begins to change  
I sometimes feel a little strange  
A little anxious when it's dark.'

"And what exactly would I want to know about your 'mission'?" Asked the brawler coming closer to her, she took a step back and fell into the couch, the blond behemoth slouching besides her. Leona was rather conscious now of the fact that both of them were almost naked as Shen´s bare leg was softly touching her own. "There's nothing really special to know." He brought the can to his lips once again. "Why are you after me? Obviously someone contracted you. Someone rich, seeing that I got the elite. And you guys are 'good,'" the brawler said, making air quotes with his hands, "so you haven't taken the offer of the triad to ice me. Besides, you guys tried to capture me, not kill me, right?" He got no response from Leona but continued anyways. "I don't know any scientific or military secrets that would merit me this attention. But, turns out I'm a certain somebody's best friend. Someone that a lot of people want to see, but no one knows where he is right now..."

"Ash Crimson..." Said Leona, following his argument to it's logical conclusion.

"Bingo. And there are a lot of people who want to see him. Two of them have good reasons that you would accept and a crapload of money, but only one would hire you, and that one is..." He spun the beer can around so the small letter was facing Leona and held it at eye level. "Read. The bottom line."

'Fear of the dark, fear of the dark  
I have constant fear that something's always near  
Fear of the dark, fear of the dark  
I have a phobia that someone's always there'

"Distributed by Kagura Enterprises, ltd..." The mercenary trailed off. This...roughneck had deduced who their employer was and what they wanted in less than twenty seconds. Leona was seriously starting to suspect a spy had infiltrated behind their lines. But then she remembered the running tactic he used against them and how he used his knowledge of the city landscape to reduce the advantage their guns had given them to almost zero. _He certainly isn't a mindless thug hired by Ash...so he must at least know where he is! _Her hopes now lifted slightly, she rose from the couch. She couldn't run away from him now. She had to manage somehow to alert her comrades and capture him to interrogate him for any valuable information.

"Don't be so self important. I just had no other choice than to bring you here, and I'm just being courteous to my guest but what I really want is to get you out of my hair ASAP." Leona didn't believe him for a second. People like him always wanted something. She just had to find out what he wanted. "By the way, you should try and have a shower while I get dressed. Last time I checked, caked blood wasn't accepted as a fashion statement," added the blond man with a chuckle as he walked into his bedroom. Leona looked at her arms. They had still remains of yesterday's battle. She wordlessly got up and strode to the bathroom. It was small and cramped, but at least it was clean. She got undressed and stared at the reflection in the mirror. She was in absolutely tip top condition, but she certainly didn't look the part, disheveled hair and caked blood everywhere. She noticed she still had her tags and the crucifix pendant she received from her mother, her only reminder of quieter, peaceful times. Although she had come to forgive herself for the massacre at the village and the murder of her own parents, she still knew the Orochi was an unchained beast inside her. She had come to find a certain level of happiness with her new father and the rest of the squad, but this recent development with the Orochi and the Riot of the Blood scared her. She couldn't let the tragedy from her past repeat itself. She got into the shower and let a stream of hot water wash away the remains of her battle.

_As much as I despise this man, for all my discipline and self-control I'm a wild beast just like him._

She grimaced at the thought and turned around to wash her back. _No! I'm nothing like him! He's like a demon feeding on violence and fighting. Unlike me, he does what he does of his own accord... What kind of person can enjoy a life of constant fighting, with assassins waiting to take his life at every turn? _She finished cleaning herself and stepped out of the shower, drying her hair when she noticed a pair of black snake-skin pants, a belt and her combat boots on a corner. _What? I didn't hear him come in?! _Angry at herself for having let her guard down she quickly got dressed and came out, finding Shen playing with Xianghua, dressed in a pair of ripped jeans and a black and red wife beater.

"You ready?" Asked the brawler, shooing away the little kitten.

"Yes."

"Let's go then."

* * *

Next up: The Lunch of DOOOOOOOOM!!!


	5. Love em and leave em

Thanks once again to Nameless Flame Wielder for the beta read. You are being a lot of help dude! Thanks!

* * *

Leona sat awkwardly at a table in what Shen had called the best restaurant in all of China. To her it certainly didn´t look the part. It looked just like an stereotypical Chinese restaurant, as much as she tried she couldn´t remark anything special about it, it´s sheer normalcy only made her more aware of the curious glances that the rest of the patrons shot at her. She squirmed visibly on her chair, much to the brawler´s amusement.

"Trying to curl yourself into a ball won´t stop them from staring, you know?" Said Shen with a playful smile appearing on his lips. _Orochi descendant, hardened mercenary and a very shy girl. _Thought the blond man. _What a curious quirk for this girl to have..._

Leona noted with a blush that, as Shen noted, she was instinctively trying to make herself smaller to avoid garnering too much attention.

"That´s none of your concern" Spat the mercenary, trying to regain as much composure as possible and attempting to mend any chips on her mental armor that the brawler was creating. Shen just laughed her comment off.

"Can´t really blame them for doing it, though." Shen eyed Leona appreciatively. Even with clothes several sizes bigger, Leona´s lithe and sexy form was attracting many lustful stares. Shen had seen her in just her undergarments, and could comprehend their attraction to her. Although of course her line of job made her be more muscled than your average concept of beauty, he found something alluring in her calloused hands and in the way her abdominal muscles barely started to show, blurring the line between her femininity and her soldier side. He stared into those aquamarine orbs of her and was reminded instantly of the clear waters of a river, or the tide washing on some tropical beach. Her lips were surprisingly full and inviting, although that was only when she was asleep because now she had them poised in quite a serious gesture. He dismissed it as a part of her strict upbringing. After all, who could smile often when Heidern himself was your father? Leona just looked at him with a glare that could have sent any lesser man into a shallow grave.

Shen just enjoyed picking away at the fortress that was the mercenary´s mind. He was truly having a ball teasing her incessantly and getting her on her nerves. _I´m spending too much time around Ashley._ Thought the brawler grimacing at the thought of becoming just like his best friend. He made a sign to a female waiter that gave him a exasperated look, not unlike the one a mother would sport upon seeing her child return home covered in mud.

"Do you actually plan on paying the meal this time, Shen?" Asked the waitress in a heavily accented English. The woman was on her mid-twenties and had her raven black hair combed in a couple of hair buns. She was very beautiful, noted Leona, taking special heed of the small dragon tattoo that she sported under her left eye. Shen tried to look brokenhearted at her words, failing miserably.

"Why, of course I do! Tell me, Po Lin. Since when our friendship, forged in fire, has been forgotten over vile things such as money?" Asked Shen, trying to use grandiloquence to deter her. The waitress just rolled her eyes, already immunized against his charms and took out of her pocket a piece of paper and dangled it in front his face.

"Since you went and triplicated the debts on your tab, that´s when!" Shen just took the piece of paper and frowned at it, as if the hate concentrated on his glare towards the sheet of paper could erase some zeroes from the total owed to the restaurant. Deciding that this course of action wouldn´t rend his expected result, he just shrugged and asked her for the menu, eliciting a sigh from Po Lin and another one from the blue-haired amazon. He quickly ordered some food in his native tongue, without consulting her, noted duly the soldier. Nevertheless, she was too hungry and would have eaten happily anything that the waitress put in front of her.

"Not paying for the food it´s some kind of Chinese custom I do not know of?" Asked the mercenary, in a futile attempt to turn the tables on him on the battle of wits and tongues that they had been waiting since they had abandoned his house. Shen just smiled and told her it was enough of a reward for the restaurant to have him as a customer as he started folding the tab into an origami paper crane.

"Besides, after you eat here, you won´t want to eat anywhere else, so I´m kind of doing Lin a favor." Leona doubted it, and besides as soon as she got the chance to alert them, her comrades would visit the tiny establishment much earlier as well as more armed than he expected. "So, what were you dreaming about that could make you scream like that?" Asked the brawler attempting to make small talk while they waited for the feast.

"That´s none of your concern." Answered Leona with a verbatim death glare, giving Shen a small sense of deja vu.

"Was it some kind of monster? And you were screaming in another language as well...Spanish?" The brawler thought he struck a sore point because the Amazon kept silent and refusing to look at his face for a minute or so. He felt guilty for doing so and turned to look at the kitchen, trying to give the silent soldier some space. _Great, Shen, that was beautiful. Why don´t you remind her of the Riot of the Blood while you are at it?_

"...It probably was Portuguese" _Why I am talking to him. He´s the target!_ Reprimanded herself mentally. Shen looked at her with renewed interest.

"So you are from Portugal? Or from Brazil? Although you´re a little pale for the latter..."

"I was born in Brazil." He looked at her, watching her as if just telling him that was the most interesting thing in the world. It was making her self-conscious.

"And how was the place like? I could start making generalizations about soccer and carnival but most likely you´ve heard them a couple hundred times and I hate them too."

"...it was...a small village in the jungle."

"So you´re some kind of amazon?" Observed Shen as if the thought was insanely funny. Leona crossed her arms and looked at the side. The brawler could have sworn that she was sighing with melancholy.

"No. It was a small missionary village. About fifty people in there." Leona remembered how her father once took her to...well, it was quite stereotypical, but he took her once to the Rio carnival. She marveled at the sheer quantity of people dancing and marching down the street. Later her beloved father even told her that this just was a small part of the world and she couldn´t believe him. The world couldn´t be that big, right? She had learned better with all her travels with her squad, of course, but she would still laugh at her naïve younger self. However she´d die before letting the brawler know this tiny bit of information. He would probably laugh at it and ask her to dance some samba or do something else that sounded remotely Brazilian.

"So you´re a village girl in the big town now? Sounds like a cheap movie plot." Replied the brawler with a warm laugh that made her feel strange. Here she was, telling her past to a complete stranger. For some reason it felt better than it sounded.

"I cannot think of any actress that would willingly have dinner with you." She told him while the waitress started bringing in the food. She marveled at the stream of dishes that came her way. Steamed dumplings, crabs, chicken legs... "Do you actually plan to eat everything?" Asked a dumbstruck Leona. Shen just shrugged.

"Big men eat big." Said while he brought the crab closer to him. "You should try the dumplings, they´re really good." Leona followed his advice and took a bite out of one of them. She immediately closed her eyes and enjoyed the taste that was lingering on her mouth.

_Hate to admit it, but he was right about this place._ As he was sucking on the legs of the crab she served herself a couple chicken legs. She was starving and really needed to get some energy if she wanted to take him on later.

"So what made a missionary´s daughter join a PMC?" She looked somewhat hurt and Shen was afraid he struck once again a sore spot.

"I...rioted..." Those two words were enough. Shen decided to try and cheer her up since he was the one that brought it up.

"I´m sorry. For making you riot back there, I mean." Leona gave him a puzzled look. "I thought the riot was just some power you just could tap on, not that you went berserk against your own will." The mercenary was surprised at the sudden heartfelt apology, it wasn´t like she expected anything like this from the criminal she had been sent to apprehend. The memories pained her, and the risk of becoming a savage mass-murderer would chase her the rest of her life. But here she was, sharing lunch with a man that wasn´t scared of her in the slightest. It comforted her that people would still see her as a human being and not some kind of monster.

"A-apology accepted." She was wondering what else lurked in the skull of the blond thug. So far he had shattered every conception she had of him. Except for the fight-loving thrill-seeker one. That nail he had hammered on with extreme prejudice. Leona noticed he had pretty strange scars in his hands. He beamed her a smile that radiated cockiness and pride.

"This ones are friction burns, from the speed, you know?" He said showing her the dorsum of his hands. He had parallel burns from the knuckles all the way to the wrist. "When I use my Tatsu! Geki Ken, the sheer velocity of the punch burns my hand, ain´t it cool? I would spam the move left and right if it wasn´t for that." She made herself a mental note to search spam in the dictionary later on. She studied those scars and remembered seeing that his leather gloves had the same markings. He then showed her his left palm. He had several thin scars that crossed it. "I made these other ones myself."

"Yourself?" Leona tried to imagine a valid reason to do that but couldn´t come up with anything logical. Then again, Shen did not look like he was completely sane...

"Yeah, but not what you´re thinking. When I was fourteen, well I was already on the streets for four years and I started to fight about a year earlier, had decided that I would be the king, the strongest warrior to ever walk the earth and whatnot. Well, I walked by a fortune teller and told myself `Why not?` so I had him read my life line and he started telling me: `You will have a successful business, you will be rich, yak, yak, yak...` The usual fortune teller crap" He took a bite out of a steamed dumpling and continued telling the tale to an intrigued Leona "I would not take any of that crap, hated the rich guys that only saw me as a walking pustule in their perfect world." Said the brawler waving his hands around as if imitating a stereotypical rich idiot with no day job. "So I pull my knife out and in front of the freaked out dude, I start making myself new life lines. Then I show him the new ones and tell him: `I´m not moving from here until you read me the palm of a fuckin´ Guan Yu.`" Leona´s smile tugged at her lips. He surprised her in some areas, but that tale had been exactly what she expected from the hot-blooded brawler. She could come with only one answer to that.

"You´re an idiot." She said trying to contain the laughter from coming out. _God, he´s just like a younger Ralf._

"What?! You´re supposed to fawn and praise me for challenging destiny!" He crossed his arms and stuck his tongue out obviously not offended but wanting to egg her on.

"You said you were one the streets when you were ten. What happened?" She was actually curious at this one, trying to picture a small and dirty Shen in an alley. For some reason it was difficult to picture him as anything else than the tough-as-nails brawler.

"Oh, well, you know. My mother was single since ever I was born. Her husband..." Leona noted that he didn´t refer to him as his father. "...was an American translator for the USA Shanghai embassy but when he discovered mom was pregnant he dumped her and went back to the USA." The mercenary had observed earlier that Shen´s features were of mixed descent, a mesmerizing mix between Asian and Caucasian. His eyes were almond-shaped but they were softened to lesser degree. His eyes were a light blue, whereas in east Asia practically the only color is dark brown. They had a pretty piercing glare, although they were very sleep-deprived. According to the report Duo Lon had facilitated about the man, Shen suffered from chronic insomnia due to an earlier addiction to amphetamines.

However she could see some dark in his hair that betrayed that his blond hair was just a dye-job "So my mother raised me up by herself, always waiting for her `beloved`" Said the brawler making air quotes as if the thought that his mother loved such a man sickened him. "Mother lost her job and we were starving, so to bring some food to the table she started whoring herself out." Leona tried to apologize but Shen assured her it was okay. "My mother did what she had to look out for me. Any real parent loves his children above everything else." Leona remembered in a flash her mother´s last moments of life, the only thing she cared about was her daughter´s well-being in spite of Leona having killed her and everything the woman held dear. "She caught some kind of disease and quickly withered away. So when I was ten my mother died and had to live on the streets by myself. You can follow the rest of my life on the rap sheets no doubt you guys got about me. Hey, at least I´m alive and kicking!" Leona could say the same about her life. It was kind of a miracle that they were both seated at this table, considering how closely their lives played with death at such a tender age.

"Yeah..." Leona wanted to slap herself in the forehead for such an eloquent and intelligent response. Shen poured some liquid into a small cup and handed it to her. "I cannot drink. I don´t bode well with alcohol."

"It´s only Baijiu! Just this one cup, we can´t toast without some booze, can we?" Leona took the cup to keep him from whining longer. She´d drink it and alert her comrades somehow. "For us, that we survived in this world long enough to meet each other."

"For survivors!" Said Leona, emptying the tiny cup in one shot. As she would tell endlessly on her report, she did not remember anything after that.

Leona woke up with a headache that threatened to split her head in two. She recognized the place as the room Whip and her shared in the Ikari Warriors HQ in Shanghai. And Whip was looking at her with an amused look.

"Welcome to the land of the living." Leona tried to rise from the bed but her headache kept her from doing any sudden movements.

"Whe-where is Sh...the target?"

"Disappeared. Now that he knows we´re after him there´s no way we can sneak upon him in his own turf." Whip said while she pranced about. "Now, our commander wants an explanation as to where you where all this time." Leona just stood there speechless, trying to think of a rational explanation of what happened. "Just why did you come at 5 o´clock in the morning reeking of booze? And what with those clothes?"

"What?!" Leona smelled herself, she reeked of liquor. And she was dressed in the clothes Shen had given to her. "I-I better go shower before I report in..." Leona said while taking her t-shirt off and walking towards the bathroom. She had to win some time to think of an explanation for this. _5 o´clock in the morning?! What the hell did I do in the rest of the day after having lunch with him?!_

"What the hell is that?!" Said Whip with a shocked look on her face, pointing towards the silent mercenary´s back an accusing finger.

"What? Do I have something on my back?!" Asked bewildered the Orochi heiress. Seirah just laughed warmly and picked a tiny mirror from the nightstand.

"Leona, dear. I always told you that you needed to socialize a little bit more. Maybe get a boyfriend..." She came towards the terrified mercenary with a mischievous smile plastered on her face. Why was everyone like this towards her? And why did her head hurt so much? "...but I don´t think Heidern is going to be very approving of this." Said her friend while placing the mirror so she could she her back.

On it, it was written with a lipstick Shen´s name and a phone number along with a bitemark like the ones Seirah´s brother used to sport on his neck...

Leona could feel her cheeks burn as her headache quickly became the least of her problems.


End file.
